Mullins waives preliminary hearing: Three of four felony charges dropped

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 12:35 PMJan 17, 2013 at 1:04 PM

Dustin J. "Dusty" Mullins waived his preliminary hearing before Magistrate Jackie Casto Wednesday morning, (January 16) and three of the four felony charges pending against him were dropped after closed door negotiations between Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Kenny Skeen and Mullins' defense attorney George Cosenza in the magistrate courtroom.

Greg Matics

A Ravenswood man waived his preliminary hearing before Magistrate Jackie Casto Wednesday morning, and three of the four felony charges pending against him were dropped after closed door negotiations between Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Kenny Skeen and Mullins' defense attorney George Cosenza in the magistrate courtroom.

Dustin J. "Dusty" Mullins, 22, of Ravenswood, was arrested January 2, 2013, by Detective Ross Mellinger of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department and originally charged with use of obscene matter with intent to seduce a minor, solicitation of a minor via computer and two counts of attempting to commit a felony. The arrest came after an interview with Mullins conducted by Mellinger concerning allegations made by a 15-year-old Parkersburg South High School student, and her parents to the school Prevention Resource Officer who in turn contacted Ravenswood High School PRO Tom Speece. Speece then alerted the Sheriff's Department and worked with Mellinger, according to Sheriff Tony Boggs.

Mullins met the girl while he was doing student teaching at South. He had subsequently been employed by the Jackson County Board of Education as a substitute teacher and had worked at Henry J. Kaiser Elementary School in Ravenswood on the day of his arrest.

According to Mellinger's criminal complaint, Mullins had allegedly asked the girl to send him a nude photo of her via Facebook messaging as part of a lengthy number of messages exchanged between the two via FacebookMessenger. According to Mellinger's criminal complaint, among the messages Mullins allegedly sent were several of a suggestive, sexual nature including "…you should send me a pic…cause I've wanted to see you without time…I'm not gonna show anyone…I just really wanna see you…cause you're sexy as hell…those jeans you always wore with the holes in em always turned me on…" Before he was charged, Mellinger said Mullins allegedly admitted to sending the messages to the juvenile via his cell phone from Jackson County, and allegedly described his comments to and conversations with the juvenile as "wildly inappropriate." Mullins was arraigned on the original charges before Magistrate Tom Reynolds, and bond was set at $150,000. Mullins posted bond following the arraignment and was placed on home confinement. After waiving Wednesday morning's hearing, Mullins was released from home confinement, but remains on the $150,000 bond. Among conditions of the bond, he is to remain in the state and to have no contact with the alleged victim.The felony charges of use of obscene matter with intent to seduce a minor, and the two counts of attempting to commit a felony against Mullins were dropped Wednesday morning.The felony charge of solicitation of a minor via computer stands.The case against Mullins now moves to Jackson Circuit Court for a presentment for indictment to a grand jury or other action, according to Skeen.

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